Dou Mbojo[1] | |
|---|---|
 Bimanese people (early 20th century) | |
| Total population | |
| c. 510.000 (2000)[2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Indonesia (Sumbawa Island) | |
| Languages | |
| Bimanese language,Indonesian language | |
| Religion | |
| Islam (predominantly)[3] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Sumbawa people,Sasak people |
TheBimanese orMbojo are anethnic group ofIndonesia that inhabits the eastern part ofSumbawa Island inWest Nusa Tenggara province.[1] With a population approaching a million people, they are the second largest ethnic group in West Nusa Tenggara.[2]
The Bimanese live in the villages of theBima andDompuRegencies, and in the city ofBima. The main occupations of the rural population arewet rice farming,animal husbandry andfishing.Swidden farming is still found among highland communities. Urban Bimanese practice a wide range of professions, including trade and local administration.[1] Tourism also increasingly plays an important role due to the proximity of theKomodo National Park. Among entrepreneurs there are many descendants from intermarriages with members of historical immigrant communities (especially Arabs, but also Chinese).[4]
Sunni Islam is the predominant religion of the Bimanese. Lowlanders are known as fervent adherents of Islam, while among the mountain communities of theDou Donggo(meaning mountain people) andDou Wawo, indigenous folk beliefs still play a strong role in everyday life, since they were able to fend off the Muslim invaders, due to the mountain regions of Bima which they occupied, as well as their being fierce warriors. They were therefore granted a semi-autonomous stats within the Sultanate of Bima. TheDou Donggo were thereby able to avoid their culture from being subverted by Islam, whilst retaining certain political privileges, as well as their indigenous practices. SomeDou Donggo communities converted toCatholicism in the mid-20th century. Although most of theDou Donggo adopted either Christianity or Islam, this was but for a tacit adoption, for as a Catholic priest put it: "The people are 70% Muslim, 30% Catholic, and 90% kaffir[pagan]", implying that, in reality, people retained their indigenous religious beliefs.[5][6]
In the 1980s, the Dou Donggo people's economy was undergoing great change, due to rapid population growth, caused by the introduction medicine, which made swidden farming untenable. This was because swidden farming relied on the ability of the fertility of the land being regenerated, something that required 1-2 years at least. However, with the increasing population density, too much stress has been put on the land, not allowing it to fully regenerate. The Dou Donggo peoples therefore needed to change from relying on the subsistent farming of swidden rice, millet and maize, towards the cultivation of wet rice in terraced paddy fields and the cultivation of cash crops such as peanuts and soybean, which were to be sold in the lowlands of Bima island.[7]
Before the spread of Islam to most coastal regions in theMalay Archipelago, several small polities in the Bima area belonged to the influence sphere of theMajapahit Empire,[8][9] and later had close cultural and political ties with theKingdom of Gowa inSulawesi. Introduction of Islam is attributed in local traditions to theMalay merchants. TheSultanate of Bima was established in the early seventeenth century under the influence of theSultanate of Gowa.[10]
The Bimanese (including the highland groups) speak theBimanese language, which belongs to theAustronesian language family. It is closely related to the languages ofFlores andSumba further to the east, and only distantly to theSumbawa language that is spoken on the western half of Sumbawa island.[11]
